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Archive for the category “Elearning”

We are close to leveling up to 2014, which means it’s time to take a peek forward at the state of gamification and what we can expect in the new year. Based on the experiences in 2013 and the gamification trends that we have seen through our work at Enterprise Gamification Consulting, here is what we will see in the next 12 months.

#1 Gamification is here to stay

Whenever you see an article asking “Is Gamification a buzz/hype/fad?” (feel free to replace gamification with any other concept and technology and you get the same picture), you know that it’s not a fad anymore and the author needs to hurry in order not to miss the train.

We are in the fourth year of gamification, with close to two dozen gamification conferences having taken place on a global scale in 2013. Over 100 studies, masters and doctoral thesis published on the topic demonstrate a viable and scientific interest in gamification.

#2 HR will Drive Gamification

Corporations worldwide have been doing a phenominally catastrophic job of managing their most important resources: people.Gallup’s long-running studies on employee engagement reveil that on a global scale only 13% of employees are engaged. In other words: 87% or not engaged or actively disengaged – read: going so far as to even sabotage the company.

Part of the reason has been that although companies are spending billions of dollars every year on employee evaluations and management, nearly none of the approaches are creating the necessary data to evaluate the true performance and capabilities of an employee. Nor do they create an environment for engagement, with management often actively (and unconsciously) discouraging the same.

The result is the dismal state of engagement. This translates into a workforce that’s effectively underperforming. But because everyone is doing a bad job, your own bad job doesn’t stick out. We occasionally realize the true potential of engaged employees, when some superstar companies suddenly raise like meteorites.

Gamification solves two problems at once for HR: the core idea is that it’s design revolves around engaging the employees, and to achieve that it creates a large data trail of the activities. As gamification will eventually touch all aspects in an organization, HR needs to own gamification and oversee it’s implementation and operation.

Several of our customers have understood that already. All gamification initiatives are coordinated by their HR departments and put into a larger strategy. And that is another reason, why gamification is not a fad but here to stay: how can something that engages employees and creates such an invaluable amount of skill data be considered a short-lived fad?

#3 Gamification will Drive Big Data & Cloud

The gamification activity data collected will be the largest dataset inside an organization. And we talk about billions of records and terrabytes of data. Rajat Paharia, founder of gamification platform company Bunchball has been preaching that mantra for some time and made the case in his bestseller Loyalty 3.0. Simple calculations show you that gamification data will dwarf any other data that an organization creates. Assume that every employee generates through his or her daily work 100 activity-related records, from publishing a knowledgebase-article, sharing information with co-workers on the intranet, responding to emails, creating new key accounts, correcting a document, expensing travel costs in time, etc., and multiply that by the number of your employees. With just 10,000 employees organizations quickly create 1 million records per day. That is far more data than most transactional systems create.

This data can find use in a variety of ways:

for the employee in real-time to show them how they are doing and show them how they can improve and learn,

by the system to reward employees and give them feedback in a timely manner,

by HR and management to analyze activities, skills and their progression over time,

finding experts for different areas to match the rightly skilled employees for new projects,

As most gamification technologies are offered as software as a service, the combination of big data and Saas will drive cloud technologies as well. Even with some pushbacks thanks to NSA-spying and general skeptic in Europe, cloud-based solutions are currently the only viable way to go.

#4 From Denial to Acceptance

The success of gamification in changing behaviors and habits and making the life of people more entertaining and fun has been proven by many examples. From the anecdotal, to hard numbers in corporations, education, or healthcare, to an overwhelming evidence from scientific studies, applying gamification shows positive results.

This body of evidence helped to a lot of corporate people that we had interacted with in the past year to lay the grounds in their own organizations for gamification. When they first came to us to attend a workshop or listen to our presentation, they were the “lone nutcases” in their organization. Armed with some advice, facts & figures, and supporting materials from us, as well as connecting them with “lone nutcases” from other companies, gamification has become a new toolset for many organizations.

#5 Gamification will Grow Up and Lose Its Innocence

While even with the most basic gamification approaches using only points, badges, and leaderboards (aka PBL) the improvements in tracked metrics are astonishing, more sophisticated approaches are appearing in the first examples. After all, there are many more gamification design elements than those three that secure a longer-lasting and intrinsically motivatedengagement. Gamification designers also experience that competition (as the opposite of collaboration) is not necessarily the way to go, especially in a corporate environment.

But of course this is a learning process for gamification designers and represents a natural evolution of how we design gameful applications. While incentive systems and perks have been around for quite a while (representing Gamification 1.0), gamification based on a larger choice of extrinsic motivators such as PBL are just an intermediate step as Gamification 2.0, leading to a more sophisticated design that we can call Gamification 3.0.

We must not be surprised seeing in 2014 that beside growing up, we may see gamification losing more of its innocence. Many of us went into the gamification business with the real believe to make life and work better for people. If the year 2013 and before were an indication with a military (see the article on the IDF) or terroristic use of gamification (The world of Holy Warcraft), there is a high probability that we see more cringeworthy applications of gamification. Does this make gamification a bad thing? No, every technology and every concept can be used for good or evil. It just tells you that gamification has grown up.

#6 Convergence of Game & Gamification Technologies

As gamification practitioners consider serious games, simulations, and gamification as categories under the umbrella-term ofEnterprise Gamification, the current gap between gamification and game technologies will force game studios and gamification technology companies to converge and integrate their technologies. While there is still a lot of space for new gamification technology entrants, either they have to bring in a new approach of integrated technologies, or the incumbents need to think of working together closer or even merging their organizations.

Conclusion

Summarizing from the forecast above, it’s never been a better moment to get into gamification than now.

IBM revealed its predictions for five big innovations that will change our lives within five years.

Bernie Meyerson, the vice president of innovation at IBM.

The IBM “5 in 5″ is the eighth year in a row that IBM has made predictions about technology, and this year’s prognostications are sure to get people talking. We discussed them with Bernie Meyerson, the vice president of innovation at IBM, and he told us that the goal of the predictions is to better marshal the company’s resources in order to make them come true.

“We try to get a sense of where the world is going because that focuses where we put our efforts,” Meyerson said. “The harder part is nailing down what you want to focus on. Unless you stick your neck out and say this is where the world is going, it’s hard to you can turn around and say you will get there first. These are seminal shifts. We want to be there, enabling them.”

Meyerson said that this year’s ideas are based on the fact that everything will learn. Machines will learn about us, reason, and engage in a much more natural and personalized way. IBM can already figure out your personality by deciphering 200 of your tweets, and its capability to read your wishes will only get better. The innovations are being enabled by cloud computing, big data analytics (the company recently formed its own customer-focused big data analytics lab), and adaptive learning technologies. IBM believes the technologies will be developed with the appropriate safeguards for privacy and security, but each of these predictions raises additional privacy and security issues.

As computers get smarter and more compact, they will be built into more devices that help us do things when we need them done. IBM believes that these breakthroughs in computing will amplify our human abilities. The company came up with the predictions by querying its 220,000 technical people in a bottoms-up fashion and tapping the leadership of its vast research labs in a top-down effort.

Here’s some more detailed description and analysis on the predictions.

In five years, the classroom will learn you to help tailor instruction to your individual needs.

The classroom will learn you

Globally, two out of three adults haven’t gotten the equivalent of a high school education. But IBM believes the classrooms of the future will give educators the tools to learn about every student, providing them with a tailored curriculum from kindergarten to high school.

“Your teacher spends time getting to know you every year,” Meyerson said. “What if they already knew everything about how you learn?”

In the next five years, IBM believes teachers will use “longitudinal data” such as test scores, attendance, and student behavior on electronic learning platforms — and not just the results of aptitude tests. Sophisticated analytics delivered over the cloud will help teachers make decisions about which students are at risk, their roadblocks, and the way to help them. IBM is working on a research project with the Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, the 14th largest school district in the U.S. with 170,000 students. The goal is to increase the district’s graduation rate. And after a $10 billion investment in analytics, IBM believes it can harness big data to help students out.

“You’ll be able to pick up problems like dyslexia instantly,” Meyerson said. “If a child has extraordinary abilities, they can be recognized. With 30 kids in a class, a teacher cannot do it themselves. This doesn’t replace them. It allows them to be far more effective. Right now, the experience in a big box store doesn’t resemble this, but it will get there.”

In five years, buying local will beat online as you get online data at your fingertips in the store.

Buying local will beat online

Online sales topped $1 trillion worldwide last year, and many physical retailers have gone out of business as they fail to compete on price with the likes of Amazon. But innovations for physical stores will make buying local turn out better. Retailers will use the immediacy of the store and proximity to customers to create experiences that online-only retail can’t replicate. The innovations will bring the power of the Web right to where the shopper can touch it. Retailers could rely on artificial intelligence akin to IBM’s Watson, which played Jeopardy better than many human competitors. The Web can make sales associates smarter, and augmented reality can deliver more information to the store shelves. With these technologies, stores will be able to anticipate what a shopper most wants and needs.

And they won’t have to wait two days for shipping.

“The store will ask if you would like to see a certain camera and have a salesperson meet you in a certain aisle where it is located,” Meyerson said. “The ability to do this painlessly, without the normal hassle of trying to find help, is very powerful.”

This technology will get so good that online retailers are likely to set up retail showrooms to help their own sales.

“It has been physical against online,” Meyerson said. “But in this case, it is combining them. What that enables you to do is that mom-and-pop stores can offer the same services as the big online retailers. The tech they have to serve you is as good as anything in online shopping. It is an interesting evolution but it is coming.”

IBM

In five years, doctors will routinely use your DNA to keep you well.

Doctors will use your DNA to keep you well

Global cancer rates are expected to jump by 75 percent by 2030. IBM wants computers to help doctors understand how a tumor affects a patient down to their DNA. They could then figure out what medications will best work against the cancer, and fulfill it with a personalized cancer treatment plan. The hope is that genomic insights will reduce the time it takes to find a treatment down from weeks to minutes.

“The ability to correlate a person’s DNA against the results of treatment with a certain protocol could be a huge breakthrough,” Meyerson said. It’ll be able to scan your DNA and find out if any magic bullet treatments exist that will address your particular ailment.

IBM recently made a breakthrough with a nanomedicine that it can engineer to latch on to fungal cells in the body and attack them by piercing their cell membranes. The fungi won’t be able to adapt to these kinds of physical attacks easily. That sort of advance, where the attack is tailored against particular kinds of cells, will be more common in the future.

In five years, a digital guardian will protect you online.

A digital guardian will protect you online

We have multiple passwords, identifications, and devices than ever before. But security across them is highly fragmented. In 2012, 12 million people were victims of identity fraud in the U.S. In five years, IBM envisions a digital guardian that will become trained to focus on the people and items it’s entrusted with. This smart guardian will sort through contextual, situational, and historical data to verify a person’s identity on different devices. The guardian can learn about a user and make an inference about behavior that is out of the norm and may be the result of someone stealing that person’s identity. With 360 degrees of data about someone, it will be much harder to steal an identity.

“In this case, you don’t look for the signature of an attack,” Meyerson said. “It looks at your behavior with a device and spots something anomalous. It screams when there is something out of the norm.”

In five years, the city will help you live in it.

The city will help you live in it

IBM says that, by 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 80 percent of urban humanity and by 2050, seven out of every 10 people will be a city dweller. To deal with that growth, the only way cities can manage is to have automation, where smarter cities can understand in real-time how billions of events occur as computers learn to understand what people need, what they like, what they do, and how they move from place to place.

IBM predicts that cities will digest information freely provided by citizens to place resources where they are needed. Mobile devices and social engagement will help citizens strike up a conversation with their city leaders. Such a concept is already in motion in Brazil, where IBM researchers are working with a crowdsourcing tool that people can use to report accessibility problems, via their mobile phones, to help those with disabilities better navigate urban streets.

Of course, as in the upcoming video game Watch Dogs from Ubisoft, a bad guy could hack into the city and use its monitoring systems in nefarious ways. But Meyerson said, “I’d rather have the city linked. Then I can protect it. You have an agent that looks over the city. If some wise guy wants to make the sewage pumps run backwards, the system will shut that down.”

The advantage of the ultraconnected city is that feedback is instantaneous and the city government can be much more responsive.

January 3-5, 2013 College Teaching and Learning Conference, sponsored by the Clute Institute for Academic Research, Maui, Hawaii, USA. http://www.cluteinstitute.com

January 3-6, 2013 National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NIToP), 35th, annual, co-sponsored by the Association for Psychological Science, University of Florida and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, The TradeWinds Island Grand Hotel, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, USA. http://nitop.org

January 3-6, 2013 International Congress for School Effectiveness and ImprovementConference (ICSEI 2012), 26th, Santiago, Chile. http://www.icsei.net/

January 7-10, 2013 Institute for the Development of Excellence in Assessment Leadership, organized by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Tampa, Florida, USA. http://www.abet.org/ideal/

January 12-13, 2013 International Conference on Information and Education Technology(ICIET), Brussels, Belgium. http://www.iciet.org/

January 13-14, 2013 Technology, Knowledge and Society, 9th, international conference, Robson Square, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.http://techandsoc.com/conference-2013/

January 22-25, 2013 International Conference on Information Technology and Travel Tourism(ENTER), organized by the International Federation for Information Technology and Travel and Tourism (IFITT), 19th, Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.ifitt.org/congresses/website/enter2013/

January 23-25, 2013 Deans Conference, organized by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), San Antonio, Texas, USA. http://www.aacsb.edu/conferences/

January 23-26, 2013Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU): The Quality of U.S. Degrees – Innovations, Efficiencies and Disruptions to What Ends?, 98th annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. http://www.aacu.org/meetings/index.cfm

January 26-30, 2013 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH), organized by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, Peabody Orlando Hotel, Orlando, Florida, USA.https://ssih.org/events/imsh-2013-central

January 30-February 1, 2013 International Conference on Education and Educational Technologies, 4th, organized by the North Atlantic University Union (NAUN), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://naun.org/wseas/cms.action?id=2213

January 30-February 2, 2013 International Conference on Communications and Information Technology (CIT), organized by the North Atlantic University Union, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://www.naun.org/

January 31-February 2, 2013 Jon C. Dalton Institute on College Student Values: Character in an Age of Self-Promotion – Exploring the Role of Social Media on College Student Development, 23rd, annual, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA. http://www.studentvalues.fsu.edu/

FEBRUARY 2013

February 1-2, 2013 Facilities for 21st Century Education, organized by the Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI), Blue Valley Center for Advance Professional Studies, Overland Park, Kansas, USA. http://www.cefpi.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

February 2-3, 2013 International Conference on Educational and Information Technology(ICEIT), 2nd, organized by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT) and the International Journal of Information and Education Technology (IJIET), Hong Kong, China. http://www.iceit.org/

February 13-15, 2013 International Conference on Web-based Education (WBE), organized by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-792.html

February 17-18, 2013 Future Innovation Technology and Creativity (FITC): Design and Technology Conference – The Intersection of Design, Development and Technology, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. http://www.fitc.ca/ or www.felix.meritis.nl/

February 21-22, 2013 Personal Digital Archiving, organized by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, National Digital Information Infrastructure Programs and University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. http://mith.umd.edu/pda2013/

February 21-23, 2013 WNRCASN Education for Leadership: Imagining the Possibilities, organized by the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.http://www.nursing.ualberta.ca/WNRCASN2013

February 23-26, 2013 Conference on the First-Year Experience, 32nd, annual, sponsored by the National Resource Center First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, co-hosted by Rollins College, Valencia College and University of Central Florida, Orlando, California, USA.http://www.sc.edu/fye/annual/index.html

February 15-17, 2012Assistive Technologies (AT), 2nd, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Innsbruck, Austria.http://www.iasted.org/conferences/

March 4-6, 2013 World Congress on Computing and Information Technology (WCIT) comprising International Conference on Digital Enterprises and Information (2nd), International Conference on e-Technologies and Networks for Development (2nd), International Conference on Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare and Digital Forensic (2nd), and International Conference onGreen Computing, Technology and Innovation (1st), organized by the Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. http://sdiwc.net/conferences/2013/wcit/

March 27-28, 2013 International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management for Innovation and Regional Development (ISTMID), 5th, Middle East University, Amman, Jordan. http://aasrc.org/conference/?author=1

April 2-4, 2013 International Conference on Engineering and Technology Education, 1st, organized by World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. http://www.wseas.org/

April 9-May 11, 2013 Strategic Planning for Your First-Year Experience Course, organized by the National Resource Center First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, USA, offered online. http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/index.html

April 10-12, 2013 Med-e-Tel: International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum for Education, Networking and Business, organized by the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH), Luxembourg, http://www.medetel.eu/index.php

April 10-12, 2013 Advances in Computer Science and Engineering (ACSE), 8th, sponsored by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Phuket, Thailand. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/

April 14-18, 2013 International Conference on Management of Technology (IAMOT): Science, Technology and Innovation in the Emerging Markets Economy, 22nd, Porto Alegre, Brazil.http://www.iamot.org/

April 14-18, 2013 International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries(IATUL): Doing It Together – Effective Collaboration in Scientific and Technological University Libraries, Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.iatul.org/conferences/

April 16-18, 2013 Technology, Colleges, and Community (TCC) Worldwide Online Conference: Emerging Technologies for Learning – Best Choices and Current Practices, 18th, annual, to be held online. http://tcchawaii.org/ or http://tcc.kcc.hawaii.edu

April 17-19, 2013 Gulf Education and Training Exhibition (GETEX), including the Global EdTech Forum, Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates. URL not available when this conference list was assembled, contactinfo@universityfairs.com

April 22-23, 2013 International Conference on Computer Games Multimedia and Allied Technology (CGAT), 6th, and Cloud Computing and Virtualization (CCV), Singapore.http://www.cgames.com.sg/

April 22-25, 2013 InternationalFederation of Training and Development Organisations(IFTDO) World Conference and Exhibition: Human Capacity Building for the Emerging World Order, 42nd, New Delhi, India. http://www.iftdo.net/

April 23-26, 2013 InternationalFederation of Training and Development Organisations(IFTDO) World Conference and Exhibition: Capability Building for Cutting Edge Organizations in New Business Order, 42nd, New Delhi, India. http://www.iftdo.net/

April 25-27, 2013 International Conference on New Trends in Education and Their Implications (ICONTE), 4th, Konyaalti-Antalya, Turkey. http://www.iconte.org/

April 25-27, 2013 What Is Radio? Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Radio Conference, sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oregon, Portland, Oregon, USA. http://www.aejmc.org/home/events/regional-meetings/

May 1-3, 2013 Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) North Atlantic Regional Conference: Global, Local, or “Glocal” – Identity for Higher Education in an International Context, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. http://www.scup.org/

May 6-8, 2013 International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CESDU), 5th, sponsored by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC) and co-organized by the Aachen University (RWTH), Aachen, Germany.http://www.csedu.org/

May 9-10, 2013 Riding the Wave of Change Conference: National Education and Technology Conference, sponsored by the Evergreen School Division, Lakeview Resort, Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. http://www.esd.mb.ca/wave/ or lroche@esd.mb.ca

May 21-June 22, 2013 Models and Methods of Student Advising, organized by the National Resource Center First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, USA, offered online. http://www.sc.edu/fye/events/index.html

May 26-29, 2013 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, 35th, annual, Austin, Texas, USA.http://www.nisod.org/conference/

May 27-29, 2013 Centre for English Language Communication Symposium (CELC): Alternative Pedagogies in the English Language and Communication Classroom, UTown, National University, Singapore. http://nus.edu.sg/celc/symposium/

May 27-31, 2013 Building the Scientific Mind (BtSM2013), Fifth Advanced International Colloquium: Science and Technology in the Service of Beauty and Harmony, organized by the Learning Development Institute, Bandung/Lembang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia.http://www.learndev.org/BtSM2013.html

May 28-31, 2013 International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) Conference, 39th annual, Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany. http://www.iassistdata.org/conferences

May 29-31, 2013 International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, 7th, Sponsored by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Paris, France,http://rcis-conf.com/rcis2013/

May 14-16, 2012Communication, Internet, and Information Technology (CIIT 2012), 7th, organized by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Baltimore, Maryland, USA. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-773.html

June 1-8, 2013 Congress 2013 of the Humanities and Social Sciences, sponsored by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS), University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. http://www.fedcan.ca/en/congress

June 6-9, 2013 The International Institute for SoTL Scholars and Mentors (IISSAM, formerly The National Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – CASTL Institute): Storytelling, hosted by Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, USA.http://www.iissam.org

June 9-12, 2013 Learning College Summit: Student Success and Completion, organized by the League for Innovation, hosted by Maricopa County Community College District, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass, Chandler, Arizona, USA. http://www.league.org/ls2013/

June 9-12, 2013 National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development (NAEYC), 22nd, San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.naeyc.org/institute/

June 11-15, 2013 Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, organized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. http://www.aacu.org/meetings/SummerInstitutes.cfm

June 15-16, 2013 International Conference on Future Network Technologies, 5th, sponsored by the International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, Colombo, Sri Lanka. http://www.icfn.org/cfp.htm

June 15-19, 2013 International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 10th, sponsored by the International Society of the Learning Sciences, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.http://www.isls.org/

June 16-19, 2013 Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC): Realizing the Dream – Education Becoming Available to All. Will the World Take Advantage?, 6th, annual, organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.http://linc.mit.edu/linc2013/default.htm

June 17-20, 2013 International Conference on the First-Year Experience, 26th, organized by the National Resource Center on The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, Big Island, Hawaii, USA. http://www.sc.edu/fye/ifye/index.html

June 17-20, 2013 International Conference on Information Society (i-Society), University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. http://www.i-society.eu/

June 17-20, 2013 Canada International Conference on Education (CICE), University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. http://www.ciceducation.org/

June 19-22, 2013 Faculty Learning Community Developers’ and Facilitators’ Institute, 14thannual, sponsored by the International Alliance of Teacher Scholars, Kellogg West Ranch at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, California, USA.http://www.iats.com/conferences/flc-institute/

June 24-27, 2013 International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 43rd, annual, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), Budapest, Hungary. http://2013.dsn.org/

June 24-28, 2013 ED-MEDIA 2013: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), hosted by the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.http://aace.org/conf/

June 26-28, 2013 International Research Conference, 5th, sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. http://www.iea.nl/irc-2013.html

June 4-8, 2012Global Learn Asia Pacific: Global Conference on Learning and Technology, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Singapore.http://www.aace.org/conf/glearn/

June 6-8, 2012 National Institute on the Assessment of Adult Learning: Tradition and Innovation in a Competitive Environment, organized by Thomas Edison State College, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. http://www.tesc.edu/national-institute/

June 7-8, 2012, State University of New York (SUNY) Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Conference: Moving from Me to We – Breaking Boundaries and Building Bridges with Globally Networked Learning Partnerships, 4th annual, SUNY Global Center, New York City, New York, USA. www.suny.edu/global/coil

June 13-14, 2012 Supported Online Learning for Students Using Technology for Information and Communication in Their Education (SOLSTICE) eLearning and Centre for Learning and Teaching Research (CLTR) Teaching and Learning Conference: Enhancing Learning, Teaching and Student Success, Edge Hill University, Lancashire, UK. http://ehu.ac.uk/sol2012

June 14-15, 2012 International e-Learning Conference: Smart Innovations in Education and Life Long Learning, organized by the Thailand Cyber University and the Office of the Higher Education Commission Thailand, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi, Thailand.http://support.thaicyberu.go.th/iec2012/

June 18-20, 2012EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR): Higher Education’s Changing Landscape and the Promise of Analytics – New Challenges and Opportunities for IT, Boulder, Colorado, USA. http://www.educause.edu/ECAR12

June 18-20, 2012Learning Transfer Conference, organized by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), Chicago, Illinois, USA.http://www.astd.org/Events.aspx

June 25-27, 2012Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE), 15th, organized by the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED), Napoli, Italy. http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-774.html

June 28-30, 2012 International Conference on Educational Reform in the 21st Century in Balkan Countries, 15th, organized by the Balkan Society for Pedagogy and Education and the University of South-east Europe Lumina, Bucharest, Romania. http://edureform.lumina.org/

July 8-11, 2013 International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM), 7th, organized by Microsoft Research, the MIT Media Lab, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.http://www.icwsm.org/2013/

July 10-14, 2013 Institute on Integrative Learning and the Departments, organized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), Portland State University, Portland, Washington, USA. http://www.aacu.org/meetings/SummerInstitutes.cfm

July 11-12, 2013 National Conference of Academic Deans, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas, USA. http://uca.edu/ncad

July 15-17, 2013 Australian University Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA) National Conference: Next Steps, 10th annual, Melbourne, Australia. http://www.aucea.org.au/

July 15-17, 2013 International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC): Beyond Borders – Communicating Globally, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Professional Communication Society, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://pcs.ieee.org/ipcc2013/

July 16-19, 2013 National Conference on Differentiated Instruction, sponsored by the Staff Development for Educators, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.sde.com/di2012/

July 16-19, 2013 Digital Humanities: Freedom to Explore, organized by the Association for Computers in Humanities, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, the Society for Digital Humanities and centerNet, hosted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.http://dh2013.unl.edu/

July 22-26, 2013 International Conference on Higher Education and Disability, 8th, organized by the University of Innsbruck and the University of New Orleans Training, Resource and Assistive-technology Center (USA), Innsbruck, Austria. http://trac.uno.edu/conf/about.cfm

July 25-27, 2013 International Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, 4th, biennial, co-hosted by Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Douglas College and Langara College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. http://kwantlen.ca/ictp.html

July 25-27, 2013 Academic Affairs Summer Meeting, organized by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), Baltimore, Maryland, USA.http://www.aascu.org/MeetingsCalendar/

September 4-6, 2013 International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World (IMCW): Beyond the Cloud – Information, Innovation, Collaboration, 4th, organized by Hacettepe University and the Limerick Institute of Technology, Strand Hotel, Limerick, Ireland.http://imcw2013.bilgiyonetimi.net/

September 17-19, 2013 Mathematics and Computers in Biology and Chemistry (MCBC), 14th, organized by World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. http://www.wseas.org/wseas/cms.action

September 17-19, 2013 June 13-15, 2012 Mathematics and Computers in Business and Economics, (MCBE), 14th, organized by World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.http://www.wseas.org/wseas/cms.action

September 20-23, 2013 World Congress on Educational Environments, sponsor by Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. http://www.cefpi.org/

September 22-26, 2013 International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries: Sharing Meaningful Information, 17th, organized by the University of Malta, Valletta, Malta.http://www.tpdl2013.info/

September 23-26, 2013 International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD): Asian Values, Western Thought, World Treasure, 16th, organized by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDTD), University of Hong, Hong Kong, China. http://www.ndltd.org/or http://lib.hku.hk/etd2013/about.html

September 26-27, 2013 European Foundation for Quality in e-Learning (EFQUEL) InnovationForum: Learning for Open Innovation, Barcelona, Spain. http://efquel.org/

September 26-28, 2013 School Leadership Symposium (SLS): International Conference for School Effectiveness, School Improvement and School Management, University of Teacher Education of Central Switzerland, Zug, Switzerland. http://www.edulead.com/2013/information.php

September 29-October 3, 2013 World Conference on Science and Technology Education: Live Science, Love Learning, Create Change, sponsored by International Council of Associations for Science Education (ICASE), UNESCO, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Borneo Convention Centre, Kuching City, Sarawak, Malaysia. http://worldste2013.org/

September ? 2013 International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications, 5th, biennial. The conference will be held September 3-6, 2013 or September 10-13, 2013. Last held in 2011 at Glyndwr University, Wrexham, North Wales, UK. http://www.ita11.org/ orr.picking@glyndwr.ac.uk

OCTOBER 2013

October 1-3, 2013 Asian Association of Open Universities: Leveraging the Power of Open and Distance Education for Building a Divergent Asia – Today’s Solutions and Tomorrow’s Vision, 27th annual, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan.http://www.aaou.net/ or http://aaou2013.aiou.edu.pk/

October 21-25, 2013 E-Learn: World Conference on e-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.aace.org/conf/

October 27-30, 2013 STEMtech Conference: Emphasizing Student Success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, organized by the League for Innovation in the Community College, Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.http://www.league.org/calendar.cfm

October 27-November 1, 2013 International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), 22nd, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), San Francisco, California, USA. http://www.cikm2013.org/

November ?, 2013 Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF7), co-hosted by the Commonwealth of Learning, the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education, and the National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria. http://www.col.org/progServ/panComm/Pages/pcf.aspx

DECEMBER 2013

December 1-5, 2013 Learning Forward Annual Conference: Connect, Engage, Learn, Virtually, organized by the International Non-profit Association of Learning Educators ((formerly known as the National Staff Development Council – NSDC), Boston, Massachusetts, USA.http://www.learningforward.org/default.aspx

Imagine a trainer at the front of the room responding to a participant’s comment by saying nothing more than “You’re right!” or “Incorrect.” Imagine this happening over and over again.

Even though it seems futile, this is one of the most common types of feedback we use in e-learning courses to respond to user actions and answers. In fact, many authoring tools come with these vacuous statements as their default response.

If we’re going after higher-order thinking and maximum learning transfer, then we’re giving up a golden opportunity when we forgo real feedback and instead resort to “correct” and “incorrect.” We need to find ways to close the feedback loop.

You Have Lots of Options

There are many strategies for providing feedback, depending on the context and type of instruction, the objectives of the learning activity, and the audience’s level of expertise. Let’s look at some of your options for providing feedback that is sufficiently informative and moves the learner forward.

1. Real World Consequences

Analog World: Some of the most ideal feedback replicates what happens in the analog world. In simulations and virtual worlds, learners are given a chance to explore, manipulate and practice so they can learn in a safe environment.

In a reasonably accurate simulation, feedback occurs naturally as the result of an action. For example, in a driving simulation, turning a simulated steering wheel to the right appears to turn the car to the right. That’s feedback.

Digital World: Then again, sometimes our simulations replicate the digital world, as in a software simulation. Too often, software simulations are completely canned, so that users can only take one action. If possible, allow for more interactivity so learners can try out the simulated software a bit to better understand how to perform a task. With more flexibility, the feedback simulates the real (digital) world. For example, when the learner clicks a menu item, the menu displays. That’s real world feedback.

We often don’t have the budget for highly robust or complex simulations, so let’s look at some other options.

2. Hints and Cues

During interactions, learners might require several tries in order to clarify a learning point or fine-tune their discriminatory skills. If this is the type of interaction you’re designing, then valuable hints and cues are a good way to assist learners without completely taking away the benefit of making errors.

3. Branching in Stories and Scenarios

When using stories and scenarios in e-learning, it’s natural to take learners down a different path depending on their response. That’s a type of feedback. For example, in an emergency medical training course, the choice of one drug results in stabilizing a patient whereas the choice of another drug results in dangerously high blood-pressure levels.

The difficult part from a design and development perspective is to determine how many paths to design and implement. A simpler approach is to design short forks in the road and then merge the two or three paths back together. It’s one way to avoid a huge design and development effort.

4. Context-Sensitive Feedback

If you don’t want to build many paths in a story or scenario, simply provide unique feedback specific to each response. In the medical scenario above, an incorrect choice would produce feedback about the danger of the selected drug and request that the learner select another one. Even though context-sensitive feedback is not as compelling as branching, it is more engaging than a facts-only exercise and probably more beneficial to learning.

I think that context-sensitive feedback should be the minimal type of feedback we provide as learning experience designers. This means that we should always provide unique feedback that is specific to each response or action the learner takes. It works in multiple-choice tests as well as games, stories and virtual environments.

5. Incentivized Feedback

Although there is no one type of feedback in learning games, gaining points or completing a challenge is motivating. This type of feedback acts as an incentive to continue playing the game and learning.

As Karl Kapp writes in The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, “A player gets caught up in playing a game because the instant feedback and constant interaction are related to the challenge of the game, which is defined by the rules, which all work within the system to provoke an emotional reaction and, finally, result in a quantifiable outcome within an abstract version of a larger system.”

6. Peer or Social Feedback

In a training context, you can use collaborative and social media tools to give and receive peer feedback from colleagues. For example, if you were designing a course for new coaches, you could set up a Facebook Group page for discussion. Then request that participants write about how they would handle a specific coaching situation.

The participants would comment on how each coach managed the fictitious problem and everyone would learn in the process. The added bonus here is that the act of critiquing and commenting can help reviewers themselves, according to one study where undergraduate students critiqued each others writing. (Cho and Cho, 2011)

7. Explanatory Feedback

You can apply explanatory feedback to any learning experience in which errors are caused by misconceptions or a lack of knowledge. If your design has frequent opportunities for learners to respond, then you can catch and remediate misconceptions as the learner is constructing meaning.

In particular, explanatory feedback, rather than corrective feedback, is a good choice for discovery learning as it helps learners build accurate mental models. In addition, there is evidence that explanatory feedback reduces cognitive load. (Moreno, 2004)

8. Self-Directed Feedback

Motivated or mature learners can benefit from self-directed feedback. As the learning designer, you can present thoughtful questions that encourage learner reflection, self-evaluation and self-assessment.

For example, after requesting that learners write a short essay response to a question, provide an ideal response or specific criteria as feedback. Then let learners evaluate their own essay and compare it to the ideal. There are many types of self-evaluation questions that can encourage higher-order thinking and reflection.

9. Worked Examples as Feedback

Worked-out examples are step-by-step demonstrations of how to solve a problem. They are thought to be effective with learners who have limited prerequisite knowledge because these examples reduce cognitive load. (Sweller, et al, 1998)

If the focus of your instruction is problem solving, then you can provide worked-out examples for learners to study and then again as feedback after they solve a problem. Note that worked examples are not effective for learners who are skilled at a task as it interferes with their ability to solve problems like an expert.

The first-ever moving picture, shot in 1878, was intended to answer a pretty simple-sounding question: How do horses move their legs when they run? Before the advent of the moving picture, it wasn’t known. But string several frames together in quick succession, and voila! The answer becomes clear.

Fast-forward a hundred and thirty-something years later, and our video technology has advanced so far that you could now record a horse running in three dimensions on a camera small enough to put in your back pocket. But an important lesson from that first running horse “movie” remains: when it comes to answering some straightforward questions, a 10-second tutorial video sometimes says more than an entire novel could.

That’s important to keep in mind if you’re thinking about including video tutorials as part of an e-learning oronline training program. And with the proliferation of video-editing software, video-sharing sites like Vimeo and YouTube, and consumer-priced, high-quality digital cameras, it’s now easier than ever to include video in your presentations. Used properly, a video can give a training program a dynamic new element that helps learners get the most out of their training material.

Why video?

Before you start recording video tutorials, it’s important to consider what sorts of problems are best resolved through video. For instance, short videos are especially good for showing or demonstrating actions or behaviors that cannot be adequately represented in writing (like the horse running). That’s why video’s great for showing how to perform a physical task, or for demonstrating soft-skill training in action, like a sales technique.

On the other hand, there are times when video may not make as much sense. For training materials you expect people to have to come back to many times, you might be wise to leave those in writing (or, if you prefer, offer both). Further, video is a one-way medium, so it works well in instances where the learner isn’t expected to participate directly (lectures, how-to’s, etc.)

Once you’ve determined that video makes sense for your training need, it’s time to start making a movie.

First things first

It’s important to remember that simplicity is best with training videos — you’re not making Transformers IV here. That said, a few preparations go a long way. Writing out a script in advance (and practicing it a few times) will make the narration much smoother. You can also storyboard out the shots you want to get. If you’re recording sound, make sure you’re using a decent microphone — the one on your camera (or phone, if you’re using that) just isn’t going to sound very good.

And … action!

For stationary shots, use a tripod, or at least rest the camera on something stable. Nothing’s worse than shaky camerawork.

Keep shots brief – eight or 10 seconds at the max, unless there’s a good reason for a longer take.

Do multiple takes of some shots. They’ll almost definitely get better, and getting a clean take can mean less editing work later on.

Skip long introductions, and lead with the most important information. One of the most common complaints about tutorial videos is that they’re too long, so the faster you can get to the relevant information, the better. Add context and further information later on.

Editing

People don’t expect snazzy special effects in training videos, so don’t waste time on fancy transitions or graphics. That said, there are a few things you can do post-production to help the video along. But remember — keep things brief. Different sources come up with different numbers on this, but typically try to keep videos to under three minutes. Some people even suggest breaking those down into 30-second or 1-minute videos that are searchable through a table of contents.

While complicated graphics and text-heavy screens are a no-go, the occasional illustration can sometimes work wonders. Studies show even simple doodles can get a lot of information across, and can even provide a little comic relief. If you do have a text screen, be sure to allow people enough time to read it — typically give an extra 30 percent of the time it took you to read it.

Finally, if you’re going to use narration, be sure you’ve got a script ready. That said, don’t sound too stiff — you want to go slowly enough that people can understand you, but quickly enough to sound natural. Adding an option for closed captioning may also make sense if some of your learners don’t speak English as a first language.

Ultimately, a the thing to remember is that training videos should be brief and concise, simple and straightforward, and should get relevant information across in an easy-to-understand method. As long as you accomplish that, your training videos will add a great new element to your training lessons.

If you’re an experienced educator, you’re probably used to designing classroom courses. However, when you step away from the blackboard and into the world of virtual learning, you need a whole new set of tools and practices to guarantee your program is a success.

Many organizations looking to add more e-learning elements to their company training programs get stuck choosing between two similar-sounding, but ultimately different, systems: Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). There are a number of similarities between the two, and recently many software packages have blurred the differences between them. However, there are a few key differences that organizations should keep in mind when looking for an online training system.

LMS: A platform for managing people

An LMS provides the simplest platform for managing the experience of students or trainees as they interact withe-learning content. One of the assumptions about an LMS, which will become clearer in the explanation of an LCMS, is that the content has already been created, and that it’s in the right format to be compatible with these systems. Beyond that, most LMS packages have several similarities in common:

An emphasis on registering participants, tracking their activity, and gauging their progress through online coursework.

Interaction with existing Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), to track the pool of those eligible for participation, and for reporting back outcomes.

Increasing the use of talent management functionality, which sometimes overlaps with functions being performed by HRIS.

In some cases, tools for analytics and performance management are included.

LCMS: The platform for managing content creation

An LCMS provides a more complex platform meant for developing content used in e-learning programs. Many LCMS packages available on the market also contain tools that resemble those used in an LMS, and most assume that an LMS is already in place. The emphasis in an LCMS is the ability for developers to create new material. Most content-management systems have several aspects in common:

A focus on creating, developing, and managing content for online courses, with far less emphasis placed on managing the experience of learners.

A multi-user environment that allows several developers to interact and exchange tools.

A learning object repository containing learning materials, which are commonly used components that are archived so as to be searchable and adaptable to any online course.

Organizations that have all their existing materials in commonly used business software formats – like Microsoft Office products – will find that few LMS platforms allow for them to simply be imported and modified. Those materials need to be created from scratch, and to do that you will need an LCMS.

The Unique Case of Managing Education Environments

A number of LMS platforms serve the education market, including some of the most well known, such asBlackboard. There are a few key differences that make education packages unique, and that may also obscure the boundary between LMS and LCMS.

An assumption that a campus will already have a number of IT environments for managing registration and enrollment, so the emphasis is on compatibility with those systems.

A number of content-authoring and creation tools that resemble those found in what are otherwise described as LCMS platforms.

An emphasis on semester-long interaction with a teacher, leading to more options for communication such as email, discussion rooms, wikis, or sometimes blogs.

Which One Do You Need?

Despite the nuances and complexities of different packages, a few simple generalizations can help organizations make a choice when choosing between an LMS and an LCMS.

The C stands for “create.” The C in LCMS actually stands for “content,” but in reality LMS and LCMS are both concerned with content. But if you need to create it, then go with an LCMS.

An LMS is focused on managing how individuals participate in e-learning programs; an LCMS is concerned with how content for e-learning is created.

An organization that already employs its own trainers and coaches should consider an LCMS that will allow these individuals to convert their existing knowledge into training materials that make sense for them; organizations content to purchase “off the shelf” components should choose an LMS.

Because of inconsistencies in the way different platforms are made and marketed, be sure to pay close attention to the details of any new product you select. Over time, these two choices will continue to evolve to meet changing demand for e-learning.